Most people walk past an old armchair, a woven basket or a family photograph without a second thought.

Artists, however, have a remarkable habit of stopping where everyone else keeps moving. They understand that ordinary objects often carry the deepest stories.

That quiet revelation sits at the heart of Weight of the Ordinary, the latest exhibition at Nubuke Foundation in Accra.

Rather than chasing dramatic moments or monumental events, the exhibition asks a deceptively simple question: What if the most important history is unfolding in our homes, neighbourhoods and daily routines?

Everyday Objects, Extraordinary Histories

Across Ghana, everyday life is filled with objects that quietly record generations of experience.

A grandmother’s wooden stool, a faded lace curtain, a handwoven cloth or a well-used cooking pot speaks not only of function but of migration, family traditions, economic change and cultural resilience.

This growing interest in the ordinary reflects a wider shift in contemporary African art. Increasingly, artists are moving away from explaining Africa through grand political narratives alone. Instead, they are finding meaning in intimate spaces where identity is formed every day.

Domestic interiors become archives. Textiles reveal histories of labour. Public spaces expose invisible systems of power. Even imagined figures rooted in Akan cosmology become mirrors for modern questions about belonging and displacement.

In doing so, these artists remind audiences that culture is not preserved only in museums or historic monuments. It survives in habits, conversations, materials and memories that many people barely notice.

Seeing Home With New Eyes

Perhaps the exhibition’s greatest achievement is not simply what hangs on the gallery walls but what visitors carry home afterwards.

Leaving the exhibition, an ordinary living room, neighbourhood street or market stall feels subtly transformed.

That shift in perspective is art at its most powerful. It teaches us that the extraordinary rarely arrives from somewhere else. More often, it has been waiting patiently in the familiar places we thought we already knew.

Long before surround sound, streaming platforms and multiplexes, a trip to the cinema in Ghana came with an extra performer.

As the film flickered across a white screen, a live commentator stood nearby, translating dialogue, explaining unfamiliar scenes and injecting humour into every twist. For many audiences, the storyteller was just as memorable as the movie itself.

When the Screen First Came to Town

Cinema arrived on the Gold Coast in the early twentieth century through British colonial administrators, Christian missionaries and travelling projection teams.

Makeshift theatres appeared in school compounds, churchyards, government spaces and open grounds, where a white sheet stretched between two poles became a gateway to another world.

For many people, these “picture shows” offered a first glimpse of moving images and distant places.

As cities such as Accra, Kumasi, Sekondi and Takoradi expanded during the 1930s and 1950s, permanent cinemas transformed film-going into a social ritual.

Entrepreneur Alfred John Kabu Ocansey helped shape that culture by establishing one of the country’s earliest cinema chains, including the famous Palladium Cinema in Jamestown.

Alongside venues such as Globe, Regal, Opera and Rex, these theatres became landmarks where communities gathered as much for the atmosphere as for the films.

More Than Entertainment

The live commentator reflected something deeply Ghanaian: the power of oral storytelling. Silent films and foreign productions became accessible because someone interpreted them through local languages, humour and cultural references.

Audiences laughed together, cheered their favourite heroes and reacted loudly to dramatic scenes, turning every screening into a communal performance rather than a quiet viewing experience.

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Different cinemas even developed distinct personalities. Some catered to patrons seeking a more formal outing, complete with dress codes and reserved audiences. Others thrived on noise, excitement and spontaneous applause, where every dramatic moment sparked an emotional response from the crowd.

A Legacy Worth Remembering

Following independence, the growth of the Ghana Film Industry Corporation expanded cinema’s role beyond entertainment, using film to educate, inspire and shape national identity.

Yet television, economic hardship and changing lifestyles gradually dimmed the lights. Many beloved cinema houses became churches, warehouses or disappeared altogether.

Their buildings may have faded, but their influence remains. They remind us that in Ghana, watching a film was never simply about the images on a screen.

It was about gathering together, sharing stories and proving that the best cinema experience sometimes came with a narrator who could make every scene feel like it belonged to the audience.

When Dr Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey speaks of immunity, he is not just talking about syringes, vials and cold chains.

Last Saturday, the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana’s National Vaccine Institute translated his public health mandate into tangible infrastructure, personally funding the commissioning of a mechanised borehole that he says delivers the same protective power as a vaccine—without a single needle.

Addressing residents of Leklebi Agbesia in the Afadjato South District, Dr Sodzi-Tettey framed the new water facility as a frontline defence against the region’s persistent battle with waterborne diseases, describing clean water as the ultimate preventive health intervention.

“When people fall sick, they are given medicine, but vaccines are administered before illness to build immunity. In the same way, clean water can be viewed as a vaccine because safe water for drinking, cooking, bathing and handwashing protects children and communities from diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid and other waterborne diseases,” he told the gathering.

The project, executed under the Community Focus Foundation Ghana (CFF-Ghana) Safe Water Access Project, is a direct response to the alarming findings of the Volta Regional Water Dialogue held in 2025 in collaboration with the Volta Regional Coordinating Council. The dialogue revealed that the region faces a staggering deficit of approximately 900 mechanised boreholes to meet basic water access needs.

The new facility in Leklebi Agbesia, which produces 90 litres of water per minute and stores up to 10,500 litres across two tanks, is a critical step toward closing that gap.

For the 8,000 residents of Leklebi Agbesia, the project is a lifeline. Assembly Member for the Fiafe Electoral Area, Joseph Gakpo, disclosed that the community had been surviving on a single operational borehole after three others broke down years ago, forcing families to rely on a nearby stream. He revealed that the stream is increasingly contaminated by agrochemical runoff from upstream cocoa farms—an invisible poison that has turned a natural resource into a vector of disease.

“We have been crying for clean and potable water. Sometimes we depend on the stream, but chemicals from farming activities find their way into the water. This project has brought great relief to our growing population of more than 8,000 people,” Mr Gakpo said.

Dr Sodzi-Tettey emphasised that his personal contribution to the project aligns with President John Dramani Mahama’s vision of inclusive national development, ensuring that rural communities are not left behind. He noted that access to potable water becomes perilously scarce during the dry season, forcing families to choose between unsafe sources and dehydration—a choice that keeps children out of school and mothers burdened by long treks for water.

Executive Director of CFF-Ghana, Richard Kasu, outlined the organisation’s pragmatic approach to tackling the water crisis: rather than drilling entirely new wells, the foundation is focusing on mechanising existing boreholes that lack pumping systems—abandoned infrastructure that holds untapped potential. He announced that CFF-Ghana plans to commission approximately 10 mechanised boreholes annually and appealed to corporate bodies and development partners to support the initiative.

“We appeal to corporate organisations and development partners to support this initiative because government alone cannot meet every community’s water needs,” Mr Kasu said.

The Member of Parliament for Afadjato South, Hon. Frank Afriyie, and the District Chief Executive, Hon. Manfred Tawiah, both commended the collaboration.

The DCE further revealed an ambitious local government plan to drill 30 boreholes yearly—triple the national target of 10—with specific focus on tourist sites such as Afadjato Mountain and Tagbo Falls to boost both sanitation and the hospitality sector.

As the commissioning drew to a close, residents sang and danced around the new facility—a concrete symbol of preventive healthcare that will protect their children not from a single virus, but from a lifetime of preventable suffering.

In the words of Dr Sodzi-Tettey, “When there is no clean water, people resort to unhygienic sources, children fall sick and valuable school hours are lost searching for water. That is why supporting this project was an opportunity to serve our communities.”